The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

“My job is to do less.”

Conservator Kirsten Travers inpainting a dado panel.

Kirsten Travers is kneeling before a dado panel in the lower corner of the Carolina Room, the #1 Kolinsky sable-hair brush in her hand barely moving as she inpaints. So still she is often mistaken for a mannequin, the conservator at Colonial Williamsburg explains the undertaking, “In the 1950s, when this room was acquired, the acceptable norm was to repaint heavily damaged areas rather than conserve what was there. It was really, really difficult, but our conservators later found they could remove the over-paint. It was very painstaking.”

Tests carried out in 2004 on the boards of this room dating back to the 1830s revealed the original surface beneath grime, discolored varnish and the repainting done by maintenance staff over fifty years ago. She has been toiling in this small rectangular room in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum at Colonial Williamsburg for two months, and Travers estimates (as precise as her profession requires) that, of the Carolina Room’s 615 total square feet, she has completed 58.

Years of work, erasing the most well-intentioned efforts of those who touched-up and repainted in 1956 (then-accepted repair techniques intended to enhance the viewer’s experience rather than reveal the original artistry) when this room was moved from North Carolina board-by-board into the old folk art museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. Travers and the conservation staff at Colonial Williamsburg are now reversing 175 years of history.

“With architectural interiors there is a growing interest in conservation.” offers Travers, who is in her second year at Colonial Williamsburg, having finished her Master’s of Science from the Winterthur/University of Delaware program in Art Conservation by doing architectural research and analysis of historical paint here, and now assistant conservator of painted surfaces. Pointing to the wide hallways full of colonial-era art and period sculpture in the museum, she adds, “Like the fine art paintings in the galleries, those have been inpainted too. Here we’re trying to leave a lot of the loss, to show the age and historical value while restoring a unity to the painted surfaces.”

After vs. Before: Cleaned and inpainted upper walls (left) compared to those repaired in the 1950s (right)

Inpainting involves distinct, minute strokes of paint a few millimeters long so future conservators may easily identify that they are additions and done later, not the original. Up close the tiny strokes can be seen, but step away and eyes adjust to view the whole work.

Though a relatively small exhibit among Colonial Williamsburg’s sprawling holdings, including 301 acres, 88 original buildings, and myriad period items, the Carolina Room is a major undertaking funded in part by a $500,000 gift from Nebraskans Rex and Pat Lucke.

Progress measured in inches per day, the Carolina Room will be completed in another year or so, faithfully restored to when the original artist signed above the door: “I. Scott, August 17, 1836.”

Once a parlor in a farmhouse built around 1830 by Colonel Alexander Shaw and wife Sarah on their 450-acre plantation in Richmond (now Scotland) County, North Carolina, the Carolina Room is quintessential folk art. Located on the Shaw’s first floor for living and entertaining, and not painted initially, Travers floats a hand over the southern yellow pine, “You can tell that the room was in-situ for a time, then painted. Examination revealed that the wood had expanded and contracted, so the surfaces were not level.”

The Shaws were relatively well to-do, as evidenced by Isaac M. Scott painting this room with distinct elements, including faux maple, oak and rosewood, while the baseboards and fireplace mantelpiece have veins painted to appear like marble. “Back then it was high status to imitate more expensive wood or stone.” explains Travers. Though made of local, inexpensive wood, the lower square dado panels are the color and grain of rosewood, while the upper molding and 13-foot high walls of the room have elegant swag, ribbons and tassels to mimic a wallpaper border.